Digital Life, Simplified

I’m a geek. I admit it. I LOVE technology, gadgets and all that kind of stuff. Spending hours just playing with toys, tinkering away a weekend, that’s how I love to spend my time. At least that’s what I like to do when I’m not hanging out with my family. I’m not sure what it is exactly that keeps me so enamored with it all but I guess you can’t always explain someone’s passion. As much as I love all things digital I am beginning to wonder if maybe I need to simplify things a bit. Do a bit of pruning if you will. I think I may have crossed a threshold that I am spending more time taking care of my gadgets and they are consuming more of my time than maybe they should.

I have been scaling back some for the past number of weeks. I try to only work on one computer most of the time instead of making certain duties designated to certain machines. One computer should be plenty for day-to-day "work" and I really think I’m getting to that point. I figure with the appropriate backup solutions in place and working more "in the cloud" I should be able to get everything accomplished with fewer systems.

My main setup now is a Mac Book Pro 13" and my iPhone 3G. I decided to use a Mac more than my PC because, to be quite honest, I was tired of maintaining it. I simply spent way more time updating, scanning and tinkering than actually using it. Now I have a streamlined system with only a laptop and my phone. So far this is proving to be a much better situation. Most of the time. I have encountered a few issues with software not being a the Mac flavor or not existing at all and I’ve had to modify my workflow a bit but even that has been very minimal. When I do need a Windows only application I simply fire up Virtual Box where I have an Windows XP virtual machine and I can do anything I need. Having a VM on my laptop also helps me by not having to worry about syncing files. The originals are stored in folders that both Mac and PC can use.

Before, I had a home PC, work PC (at my regular job) and a laptop. Most of the time this worked perfectly fine but I always had to make sure things were syncing properly and at all times. All three systems needed to have updated software in some fashion, three times the work if a major upgrade came out for anything. All of these systems just got to be more than what I wanted to deal with so here I am.

I will say that my current digital life if MUCH more calm and usable. I don’t have to look for files on different computers, I get to use my iPhone with a Mac (which seems to work a LOT better) and I have everything I need with me at all times because I always have my phone and my laptop goes with me to work. The giddy geek inside is very happy.

b